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Stagnant Air Leaves East Stuck In Dryness Bordering On Drought

July 26, 1999|By From Tribune News Services.

PENNSYLVANIA — Corn leaves are shriveling into cigar-like shapes, trout are dying in hot and diminished streams and once-green lawns have become patches of yellow as exceptionally dry weather nears drought proportions in the Eastern United States.

From Virginia to Massachusetts, extending as far west as Ohio, a stagnant high-pressure system stubbornly lurking over the Southeastern United States has caused a dearth of rain this summer, the National Weather Service said. The arid weather follows almost a year of low precipitation, resulting in pernicious cumulative effects such as trees falling ill, with some beginning to die.

"It's as if in the last 12 months, in three of those months, it didn't rain at all," said Paul Knight, a meteorologist for Pennsylvania State University. "It's a cumulative sort of thing."

In the last week, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland have issued drought alerts or warnings, and the National Weather Service placed the New York City region on a drought watch. Mandatory water-conservation measures have been imposed in 55 Pennsylvania counties, in three dozen New Jersey communities and in New York state's Rockland County, among other places.

Rainfall in the region in June and July has been the lowest in more than a decade, according to the Weather Service.